KEY POINTS:
When superboot Joel Stransky brings up the spectre of the World Cup it is understandable if beads of sweat start forming in places deodorant can't reach and if your throat starts to constrict as your body prepares for a mild panic attack.
But it is not 1995 on his mind - remember the drop goal? - though there's probably not too many days in the Republic when somebody doesn't remind him of it. Nor is it last year, when his beloved Boks were given strangely free passage to their second world title in four attempts.
Rather it is 2011 at the forefront of his mind. He believes the fact New Zealand are hosting the tournament means the Tri Nations leading up to then is going to have far greater significance than it normally would.
"To win the World Cup somebody has got to come down to New Zealand and beat the All Blacks," Stransky told the Herald on Sunday. "That mental challenge starts now."
It sounds obvious but it is worth remembering that of the current Springbok squad only Percy Montgomery has won a test on these shores. He was part of the 1998 Springboks who defeated the All Blacks 13-3 at Athletic Park, when the home team was in the midst of a season from hell.
The fact South Africa has suffered through a barren decade shouldn't be downplayed as a motivating factor.
This was Victor Matfield, who made a decision to commit himself to the Springboks while enjoying a stint with Tana Umaga's Toulon, speaking to SA Rugby: "I want to win the Tri Nations by winning four games, for example, and not sneaking through on bonus points. Do you know, I've never won a test match in New Zealand; those are unfulfilled goals."
John Smit, playing this weekend for Clermont in the French Top 14 final, has expressed similar sentiments and it is thinking that Stransky relates to.
"As a little boy growing up in South Africa if you're at all rugby minded you grow up with the dream of playing against the All Blacks. As part of that dream nothing can be better than going to New Zealand and beating the All Blacks on home soil."
Stransky, the former first five-eighths, will take particular interest in the battle of wits between Butch James and Dan Carter. James is a sometimes maligned player in New Zealand but Stransky said over the past 18 months he has developed into a terrific pivot, particularly after Australian Eddie Jones worked with him.
"All of a sudden we saw a change in the way he played and his mental approach. All of a sudden he became a fantastic rugby player in every aspect. He is definitely the right man for the job."
As is his opposite.
"To say that Carter has not reached the form he had a couple of years ago when as a youngster he came out of the blocks so fast is very harsh indeed.
After [the 2005] season when he was unbelievable, every team in the world has sat down with the videos and has studied the past 10 games he's played and said 'where is his weakness, how can we stop Dan Carter because if we stop him we can stop the Crusaders or the All Blacks?' Bearing in mind the pressure he is under and the fact that every time he touches the ball he has three defenders bearing down on him, he has still looked a world-class player.
"He's an unbelievable player, he still finds space, he still makes the right decision and he still executes properly. And he does that with every team in the world trying to stop him."
Shutting down the All Blacks backs will again be key to any Springbok success. Stransky expects that South Africa will fall back on the banana rush defence, squeezing the space for the outside backs and forcing the twin threats of Daniel Carter and Ma'a Nonu into running the same channel.
While that might be the Boks we all know and respect rather than like, there will be a new-look South Africa with ball in hand. It's fair to say Stransky has been slow to warm to the new style of Peter de Villiers.
"I haven't been impressed," he said bluntly. "Not at all. There's been some good, some brilliant individual performances, but it wasn't a great Wales team and while the conditions weren't good for the Italian game they weren't a great team either.
"We've messed around too much at selection and that hasn't allowed any continuity.
"The game plan looks to be one of trying to be entertaining and play quickly. Even though you can understand what the coaching team are trying to do there they haven't built a strong enough foundation to play that way. De Villiers' ethos is to play the game in the right way and to entertain; it's going to take time for that paradigm to shift.
"Even at our strongest and with our best selection we still look to be 15 individuals who haven't moulded into a team yet."
To break the habit of a decade and win in New Zealand, they'll need to become a team, like they clearly were in France last year, once more.
